Highlights
- Gear 5 in One Piece has brought both power and consequences for Luffy, with intense physical tolls after each use.
- Luffy’s struggles to master Gear 5 follow a common theme in battle shonen series, leading to potential theories on how to overcome its limits.
- Elbaf may hold the key to Luffy’s next power-up, potentially involving a training arc and guidance from Shanks on advanced Haki skills.
From the time he Awakened his Devil Fruit in Wano Country, Gear 5 has been a game changer for One Piece’s protagonist, Monkey D. Luffy. Unfortunately, the benefits of this transformation also come with a fair share of negative consequences that Luffy has been forced to deal with.
In many battle shonen series, power-ups often have significant drawbacks, which then fuel a character’s struggles to fully master their abilities. Eiichiro Oda has adopted a similar approach in One Piece, although the solution to Luffy’s current problem remains somewhat unclear. Presently, there are a few potential theories about how Luffy could overcome the limits of Gear 5 in One Piece, and here are a few that stand out.
The Drawbacks Of Gear 5
Consistently, after every usage of Gear 5, Luffy was left in an emaciated state, to a point where he displayed signs of advanced aging. From worn and stretched skin to deformed facial features, the toll taken by Gear 5 on Luffy’s body was not concealed in the slightest, and these symptoms appeared the moment the transformation wore off.
Alongside this, Luffy also experienced a considerable amount of fatigue, to the point where he could barely stand or move, let alone continue fighting. On one hand, these sorts of drawbacks were quite common with other transformations such as Gear 2, Gear 3, and Gear 4, but not to this extent.
Prior to the time skip, Luffy was generally left depleted of nutrients after overusing Gear 2, which forced him to consume large amounts of food in order to continue fighting. Subsequently, after returning from his training with Silvers Rayleigh, his use of this ability was refined, and he could channel it in short bursts to limit its negative impact on his well-being. Currently, he seems to be able to use Gear 2 without much strain on his body.
While Gear 3 originally shrunk Luffy’s entire body to a chibi-esque state, he was able to overcome this hurdle during the time skip, and can now use it freely without such issues. Conversely, when Luffy uses Gear 4 too much, he will be unable to use Haki for a certain period of time, and be left fairly exhausted. On observing this, it is easy to see that Gear 5’s ramifications take this one step further by increasing the recovery time and heightening the overall strain it puts on Luffy’s body.
How Luffy Has Managed So Far
Midway through his final clash with Kaido in Onigashima, Luffy’s Gear 5 transformation nearly ran out, and he was forced to revive it by matching his heartbeat to the Drums of Liberation, which seems to be the trigger for the transformation to take place. In this case, a drastic measure of this nature seemed to work reasonably well, since Luffy was able to conclude his fight against Kaido before the transformation wore off completely.
Later on, during the Egghead Arc, Luffy was given a second wind of energy after Gear 5 ran out during his battle with Admiral Kizaru, when someone mysteriously fed him large amounts of food. This instantly rejuvenated Luffy, allowing him to continue fighting against Kizaru and Saint Jaygarcia Saturn, before the remaining Five Elders landed on the island. Even after this second burst of energy was exhausted, Luffy managed to keep going after being fed hákarl, an emergency ration used by the giants of Elbaf.
Will Elbaf Feature A Training Arc?
Since the Straw Hat Pirates’ next destination has been confirmed to be Elbaf, there is reason to believe that this arc may provide a few more power-ups for the crew, before the war to conclude One Piece’s Final Saga begins. From what has transpired in the Egghead Arc, it is quite obvious that most characters within the crew will need to amass more power before they take on opponents such as the Blackbeard Pirates or the Five Elders and Imu.
Chief among them is Luffy himself, since he was unable to inflict much damage on any of the Five Elders while fighting them on Egghead. He could not find a solution to counter their regeneration, and seemed to be suffering burns or injuries to his own body, whenever he tried to go on the offensive. From this, it can be assumed that Luffy needs to gain at least one substantial power-up, before he can really make a difference in One Piece’s final war.
One of the main reasons this might happen in the Elbaf Arc, is due to the role Shanks could play in this segment of the story. The long-awaited reunion between Luffy and Shanks has been a driving force in One Piece since its very beginning. Shanks’ command over all three types of Haki — including their advanced applications — has also been rumored to be the best in the entire series, and now might be a perfect time for Luffy to gain some insight into how these abilities can be harnessed to their fullest extent.
If Elbaf were to feature a training arc of this nature, it could be exactly what is needed for Luffy to reach the level he needs to be at, in order to bring about the dawn of the One Piece world. Till now, the series has not provided a concrete reason behind Joy Boy’s defeat at the hands of the Twenty Kingdoms, but things have become a bit clearer upon seeing the powers wielded by the Five Elders. Hence, if Luffy is to succeed where Joy Boy failed, he will almost certainly need one final ace in the hole, since Gear 5 alone might not be enough to seal victory against the World Government.
Examining What The Future Of Gear 5 Could Be
There are a few ways that Gear 5 could evolve to allow Luffy to compete with the world’s strongest pirates and World Government officials, ranging from greater mastery and application of advanced Haki, to the use of emergency rations such as hákarl. One other solution could arise if Luffy were to either consume or imbue his body with the Mother Flame — a feat that is not too hard to explain with Gear 5’s reality-altering power.
While this may be one of the more ridiculous theories about how Gear 5 could evolve into an ability capable of taking down the World Government, nothing is ever really off the table with just how absurd One Piece can get at times. All things considered, Luffy will surely have to dig deep and push Gear 5 past its limits to achieve new heights of strength, since he will now be facing combatants whose strength is on a scale beyond anything seen in the series to date.
One Piece is available to stream on Crunchyroll.
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